August 23, 2012

Take some fresh sweet corn, put it in the oven (husks and all), and roast it.

can you smell the aroma?

Then,

take some sun-ripened cherry tomatoes

plus a couple of other ingredients and make a beautiful salad.

the colors of summer

Last year, I made two variations of this colorful, deeply flavored, and light corn salad. This year, after preparing it the same way a couple of times, I decided to make a small change substituting the hearts of palm (cuori di palma) with a ripe avocado. The tendency avocado has of turning into a cream makes olive oil not necessary, so the absence of olive oil from the list of ingredients is not an oversight.

The other difference is the use of chive blossom vinegar (aceto aromatizzato ai fiori di erba cipollina). As soon as this recipe from Leite's Culinaria arrived in my mail box, I knew I would try it. The chive seedling I planted a couple of years ago has grown strong and last year was divided so now I have a few chive plants spread around my little garden. I set aside enough blossoms and followed the easy instructions to make a jar of the vinegar using white wine vinegar (aceto di vino bianco). I love the rosy color and the smell clearly includes a chive component. If you have access to chive blossoms, I recommend you try. Pay attention to what David says about putting a barrier between the vinegar and the metal lid of the jar.

When the vinegar was ready, I bought a nice glass bottle (bottiglia) for it of which you see the top in this photo.

Roast corn in the oven at 450 F for 20 minutes (on a baking sheet). Let cool briefly, then remove the husks. Working on a shallow bowl or pyrex dish, use a knife to separate kernels and scrapings from the cob. This page from bon appetít describes precisely the way I do this with the knife. (Save the empty cobs to make stock or broth.)

Cut cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise. If they are long, like the Blush, cut them crosswise into two or three pieces, depending on their size. Peel and dice lemon cucumber. Cut avocado into half, remove pit and dice pulp. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, add some vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and toss gently. Sprinkle basil on the salad and toss again. Serve and enjoy.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

You may want to use more or less of this or that ingredient. But make this salad: it is really nice, refreshing, filling and cheerful (yes, there is such a thing as a sad salad: this one is the polar opposite). It's like edible summer.

1 Both mais and granturco mean corn in Italian.

2 In Italy, cherry tomatoes are also referred to as pomodorini ciliegia and pomodori ciliegini.

Comments

Take some fresh sweet corn, put it in the oven (husks and all), and roast it.

can you smell the aroma?

Then,

take some sun-ripened cherry tomatoes

plus a couple of other ingredients and make a beautiful salad.

the colors of summer

Last year, I made two variations of this colorful, deeply flavored, and light corn salad. This year, after preparing it the same way a couple of times, I decided to make a small change substituting the hearts of palm (cuori di palma) with a ripe avocado. The tendency avocado has of turning into a cream makes olive oil not necessary, so the absence of olive oil from the list of ingredients is not an oversight.

The other difference is the use of chive blossom vinegar (aceto aromatizzato ai fiori di erba cipollina). As soon as this recipe from Leite's Culinaria arrived in my mail box, I knew I would try it. The chive seedling I planted a couple of years ago has grown strong and last year was divided so now I have a few chive plants spread around my little garden. I set aside enough blossoms and followed the easy instructions to make a jar of the vinegar using white wine vinegar (aceto di vino bianco). I love the rosy color and the smell clearly includes a chive component. If you have access to chive blossoms, I recommend you try. Pay attention to what David says about putting a barrier between the vinegar and the metal lid of the jar.

When the vinegar was ready, I bought a nice glass bottle (bottiglia) for it of which you see the top in this photo.

Roast corn in the oven at 450 F for 20 minutes (on a baking sheet). Let cool briefly, then remove the husks. Working on a shallow bowl or pyrex dish, use a knife to separate kernels and scrapings from the cob. This page from bon appetít describes precisely the way I do this with the knife. (Save the empty cobs to make stock or broth.)

Cut cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise. If they are long, like the Blush, cut them crosswise into two or three pieces, depending on their size. Peel and dice lemon cucumber. Cut avocado into half, remove pit and dice pulp. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, add some vinegar, salt and pepper to taste and toss gently. Sprinkle basil on the salad and toss again. Serve and enjoy.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

You may want to use more or less of this or that ingredient. But make this salad: it is really nice, refreshing, filling and cheerful (yes, there is such a thing as a sad salad: this one is the polar opposite). It's like edible summer.

1 Both mais and granturco mean corn in Italian.

2 In Italy, cherry tomatoes are also referred to as pomodorini ciliegia and pomodori ciliegini.

To use any of the photographs published in the blog permission must be obtained from Simona
No food was (nor will ever be) discarded in the process of taking the photographs, i.e., everything was consumed either immediately or in due time